"I Watched Russian TV So You Don't Have To"

[Nevilledog]

Link to tweet

https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2022/03/how-russian-tv-portrays-war-ukraine/627010/

No paywall
https://archive.ph/cV67x

In Russia’s version of the war, Russians are liberators, Ukrainians are Nazis, and the West is full of mendacious hypocrites. To turn on Russian TV news is to enter a parallel universe, one where even the word war is forbidden. Russian President Vladimir Putin’s government has now blocked or restricted any other sources of coverage, so this is the only version of the world most Russians see.

To get a sense of what Russians are told about the war, I fired up Russian state TV for a few hours a day over the past week from my laptop. Though the state-run news channels do include purportedly on-the-ground news reports, much of the action is on talk shows, which are “where the more extreme or nationalistic narratives are pushed,” Sarah Oates, a political-communication expert at the University of Maryland, told me.

Hosts and panelists stick closely to the same Kremlin talking points, lending the broadcasts an endless, looping quality, even by cable-TV standards. One panel of white guys who love Putin dissolves into another, and another. “Every third word is Ukraina, America, NATO,” says Bakhti Nishanov, a senior policy advisor at the U.S. Commission on Security and Cooperation in Europe. “Even if you were just not paying attention … it’s in your subconscious.”

On Russian TV sets, people, walls, and floors are decked out in the “Z” marking that Russian troops paint on their tanks. I saw it used to mean za pobedu (for “victory”) and za mir (for “peace”), even though that’s not how you write the letter Z in Russian. Throughout, I heard references to parts of Ukraine being “cleaned out” and “brought to order,” and that Ukrainians “will only understand the truth about their country once it’s liberated.” The penalty for dissent is great, and the talk-show guests are in constant agreement. They nevertheless frequently end up yelling, spitting twisty consonants at one another until the host introduces a new way in which the government line is correct.

*snip*

[Atticus]

1. So, they have their own FOX, huh? Who'd a thunk it! nt

[Nevilledog]

2. Nah, we have our own Russian state TV

Luckily that's not ALL we have.

[chowder66]

3. This makes me sick.."Ukrainians "will only understand the truth about their country once it's

liberated".


Seems to me a large segment of the Russian population gave up thinking a long time ago.

[Pantagruel]

4. Need to penetrate

the info blockade. How?

[Qutzupalotl]

5. I've heard people are using 1-star reviews of restaurants in Russia

to tell people what's happening in Ukraine. They can upload photos too, so Russian viewers see cuisine, cuisine, bombed hospital.

[mitch96]

6. GREAT idea.. nt